The dust had mostly begun to settle and the vultures had come out, scavenging the graves and cleaning up the bodyguards littered around the world and as the night fell they were upon the graveyard once more digging and looting form the fallen taking anything that looked like it would be worth a couple bucks when they reached the top of this coffin though something was different, there was a glow, it wasn’t very bright but rather soft light blue glow emerging from the cross shaped cut out just over the body the thieves share a brief look before mauling the thing open with a couple of crow bars and no sooner than the pair of dirt caked fools discovered the source of this ethereal glow they were frozen perhaps it was the beauty of the luminous gem encrusted skull that sat it front of them or perhaps it was disgust at the beheaded bullet riddled body that the artifact was rested atop. Just as the closer of the two out stretched his arm to inspect the thing a bit closer a strange cold wind blew for it was almost summer in Vegas you see even at night amongst the concrete catacombs of this desolate place the heat would linger for ages yet the man was able to shake his feelings of misfortune and retrieve the skull as he held it high to the full moon the luminous nature of the object increased ten fold and the ground around them began to quake 

“Put that fucking thing back and let’s get out of here Joe” the man standing over the grave leaning on his shovel shrieked at the man inside the grave 

“Are you kidding me?? This is the best thing we found all night just think of what Frankie will give us for this we will eat steak for a month off this thing!” Joe said while staring deeply into the holes where the eyes ought to be he begun to feel strange almost as if he were looking at himself and his companion from the near by tree that over shadowed the entire grave yard, Joe looked deeper and deeper into until his gaze was interrupted

”Come on man we got plenty these rings and guns will be plenty for a hot meal, that shit could be cursed or god knows what else, if you wanna take it can’t stop but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Joe hadn’t been listening he was mesmerized by the object a full sized human skull adorned with rubies and sapphires that gave off this strange natural glow maybe he wouldn’t be taking this to Frank he began to think as he placed it in a separate bag Terry began to protest 

“Don’t do this man, everything you put in that bag goes in your stash if your going to take that damned thing at least get a good pay day in begging you” 

by this time Terry had turned his back to the grave site and was unable to see Joe climb out with an animalistic look in his eyes which were void in the dark of the cemetery empty of life possessed by the skull Joe smashed Terry on the head with his shovel as he mumbled 

“No…. The skull is mine it’s all mine!” And began to place the body of his friend into the grave and began sifting dirt on top of him he began to laugh 

The Curse

Joseph MacManus was a simple man from a simple area mostly dealt in cattle all his life after especially after the family patriarch went off to the LA and disappeared, his mum told him there were whispers he had fallen in with a rough crowd “The Mafia” she would say to him he knew not yet what that would mean.

The farm falling on hard times in a hot summer with water scarce to find he found another form of income, Grave robbing nothing special quite cynical really taking from the dead. But it was steady money some he hadn’t seen in a long time and so he continued hearing the mafias all over the country had begun a war the young brash man grabbed his shovel and his partner in crime and headed out to Vegas where he heard they had begun to drop like flies.

The men arrive a day late a dollar short and are in the need of quick cash if they plan on eating that night and so they make their way into the cemetery and begin to dig pulling up a trove of gold watches and jewelry, these gangsters know how to dress they thought, the men share a look of agreement and begin to trade off one man digging one keeping a look out the fresh man began to scan the graveyard when he saw it amongst the marble and granite a single stone rustic in design etched across the face of the stone it read MacManus, he speaks out into the grave

”MacManus….ain’t that your name Joey”

”What the fuck are you on about now I told you there are no ghosts”

”I know there’s no fooking ghosts, isn’t your name MacManus is what I said” 

“Yeah Terry that’s my fooking name” said Joe mockingly from inside the plot 

“well there’s a grave over there with your name on it” this struck Joe he hadn’t heard anyone with that name in a long time other than himself, his grandmother remarried shortly after his grandfather left and his father had gone just a few short weeks after demanding answers but was never heard from again his mother grief stricken stuck that name from everything but him

he climbed up slowly glancing across the field of flowers and lovely greenery scattered about for the victims of the recent massacre Joe approached the grave slowly feeling drawn to it, who did it belong to, were they related, he may never know his grandfathers name lost to the ages or perhaps repressed from memory he noticed another etching as he near close 

“And shepherds we shall be, For Thee, my Lord, for thee. Power hath descended down from thy hand. Our feet may swiftly carry out thy command. So we shall flow a river forth to thee and teeming with souls shall it ever be.”

In Nomeni Patri, Et Fili, Spiritus Sancti

 He knew this prayer well, it was inscribed in the back wall of the fireplace at home, he had to know and he was here to deface graves any way so he began to dig